MISERY at Bucks County Playhouse

At an eerily quiet moment in MISERY, itís hard to tell if thatís the sound of the waterfall that runs next to the Bucks County Playhouse, or blood gushing from the stage.

Last night I saw the world premiere of Stephen Kingís MISERY and I take my hat off to Jed Bernstein, Johanna Day, and David Korins. Johanna Dayís performance as Annie Wilkes is the most terrifying performance I have seen in years. Her Annie will turn on a dime at the smallest provocation and is the epitome of unstability. David Korinsí intimate scenic design seems to cave in on itself as the play progresses. At each scene change, his bedroom piece appeared to move further downstage, bringing the action ever closer to the audience, and making the penultimate scene take place inches from our faces.

This developmental production is a gem and I hope it has a life beyond Bucks County.

aasjb I have been waiting to hear reviews. Have been working on it here in Brooklyn and haven't had a chance to get down and see it. Sandy screwed up production time BIG time eliminating two weeks due to power outages!

I'm so glad someone posted about this! I love Stephen King, and I've been curious to know how this movie will work on the stage since I sadly won't get to see it at Bucks County. Now reading what you wrote I'm even more bummed I'll be missing it. I'll love to hear more about it. I too really hope this play will have a life outside of Bucks County!

SNAFU are you working on a production of the licensed version by SF? I tried to apply for the rights recently and got denied and I was told that the rights have apparently been restricted for sometime and I live in NY too.

The version by Moore as far as I'm concerned is pretty flawless (with the exception of the ending) and would be curious as to how this version differs. Also calling it a World Premiere might be a little misleading seeing how it has already been done, right?

I disagree that it's misleading. THIS version has never been seen on stage. Period.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

I really hope this has a longer life outside of this production. In fact, I can't imagine it not. No offense to the lovely Bucks County Playhouse (a wonderful theatre in a wonderful town), but this seems to have a lot of star wattage (cast, crew, and author) for just a one-off in a small regional theatre.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body

"I think we'll be seeing a lot more of these short out-of-town runs at the BCP. The new owners and staff are very Broadway connected and it plays back to the origins of the theater."

Am (was) a local too - they are really trying to "redevelop" the image of the Playhouse from the past couple of years, I know I'm certainly glad to see it happening. They've had a couple of short runs with some nice Broadway names in there (Jill Paice, Ron Bohmer, etc) and some huge stars (Tyne Daily and James Earl Jones were there in October, in another premiere of sorts I think), but only two performances. Good for the playhouse!

It also seems like they've made it simply an equity house. far removed from the days of it's low budget summer stock shows.

A Chorus Line played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013.

Minor renovations from what I've heard (inside .. sans mold, etc)... It got badly flooded from '08 onward a few times, its in a terrible location. New Hope's a great little town and always seems to come back, yet the theatre seems to dud away for months after the town's recovery.

I'm sure the summer months will be filled with college talent/stock productions, but considering the finances it needs a serious revamp now. One of the last years I lived there it was generally filled with 5-10 of such productions of popular titles like "Jekyll & HYDE," "Oklahoma," "South Pacific" and the sort (several times)... Glad to see it gaining some new momentum.

It's always been an equity-friendly house.. But now they want more "equity-talent" because they were literally on the verge on bankruptcy... They were from closed from late 2010, if I'm not mistaken until this summer.

They also run two theatres in nearby New Jersey in the summer that will continue to run the "stock/college" productions, one of which is an outside venue.

The entire place was gutted. What used to be only ratty black walls, floor, and falling-apart red seats, is now wooden floors, wooden chairs with purple detail and stone walls, painted purple. The renovation really is beautiful, and reminded me of the Second Stage Theatre.